Jim Thome's career matured along with sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball statistics to determine a player's value beyond the routine hitting line of batting average, home runs and runs batted in.

Sure, Thome's career power stats are prodigious: 612 home runs and 1,699 RBIs.

But when you factor in the advanced sabermetrics player value stats — such as a career 72.8 WAR (wins above replacement), or what his value is over the average player — Thome's career numbers gain even more significance.

So where does Thome rank all-time?

We asked Bill James, senior baseball operations adviser for the Boston Red Sox, father of sabermetrics and author of several baseball analysis and history books including "The Politics of Glory: How Baseball's Hall of Fame Really Works."

"I wouldn't think that he was one of the top 10 power hitters in the history of the game, but probably was one of the top 25 pure power hitters ever to play the game," said James. "I always compared him to (Hall of Famer Harmon) Killebrew. Killebrew and Thome had all of the muscles that are helpful in playing baseball and a lot of muscles that aren't helpful in playing baseball.

"Of course," James continued, "he's in this era where a lot of his teammates and a lot of his opponents were using steroids, so there is a concentration of power hitters in that era. That Cleveland team in the 1990s had Manny Ramirez, Thome and Albert Belle. Can you imagine pitching to that lineup?

"Thome never had a steroid body, and we always assumed that he might not be using them," James continued. "He was just country-boy strong."

Does Thome belong in the Hall of Fame? Here is where James turns to the numbers.

"The measure that I use is Win Shares and Loss Shares, and there are two standards there," James said. James' standards are:

1. 300 Career Win Shares, and

2. 100 more Win Shares than Loss Shares.

"If a player meets both of those standards — 300 Career Win Shares and 100 more Win Shares than Loss Shares — then, in my opinion, he is a clearly qualified Hall of Famer," James said. "I credit Thome with a career won-lost record of 326-108, a .751 winning percentage.

James is also the creator of the Hall of Fame Monitor found on baseball-reference.com. The monitor assesses how likely (not how deserving) an active player is to make the Hall of Fame. A rating of 100 means a good possibility for the Hall of Fame and 130 is a virtual cinch. Thome's rating is 156.

Then there is the Baseball-Reference similarity scores, also created by James. Similarity scores compare players starting at 1,000 points and subtracts points based on the statistical differences of each player.

Jackson, Mantle, Schmidt and McCovey are in the Hall of Fame. Thomas, Griffey, Ramirez and Sheffield aren't eligible for the Hall yet. And Sosa, whose career was marred by claims of steroid abuse, and McGriff, who with 493 has the fewest career home runs among these 10 players, have yet to be elected to the Hall of Fame.